Archives and Collections

We are a unit of the National Archives and Records Administration. Our holdings consist of the historically significant materials created by Federal agencies in southern California, Arizona and the greater Las Vegas, Nevada area. Agencies represented include the U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service. Our records document the complicated relationship between the Federal government and the people of southern California, including the role of the Navy and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the evacuation of Japanese and Japanese-Americans during World War II; the struggle for civil rights such as the desegregation of California schools in the landmark case, Mendez v. Westminster. Our District Court records contain cases of sedition, prohibition violations, obscenity and the struggle for free speech. Our holdings of the Bureau of Indian Affairs not only record the culture and history of southern California's Mission Indians, but also the work of the Los Angeles Employment Assistance Office, which worked between 1947 and the 1970s to relocate Native Peoples from rural reservations to learn trades in the Los Angeles area. We have records that document the growth of Hollywood as an industry and the lives of the people who worked there including the naturalizations of many Golden Age actors such as Cary Grant, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and others. The records of the U.S. District Court also document the development of technology and intellectual property rights in the film industry. The settlement and growth of southern California is documented here. Our holdings document the management of public lands, including homesteading, ranching and mining. We have records created by the Federal government related to the growth of aerospace industry giants such as Lockheed, Douglas Aircraft and Hughes Aircraft. Included is information on the research and development of aircraft such as the H-4 flying boat (the Spruce Goose) and the Bell XS-1. Also represented are records related to labor relations during World War II. The records of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers document their work on flood control in the Los Angeles river system, including the iconic channelization of the LA River.